Prime Minister's question asked in the House of Commons, by Stuart Bell (Labour). It was answered on Wednesday, 9 November 2011 on behalf of the Prime Minister.

Engagements

Question: Given that Italy is now on what the Prime Minister has described as a ““credible fiscal path””, will he help the Group of Twenty's Finance Ministers to meet and contribute to the creation of a European financial stability pact in a way that will assist the eurozone?

Answer: The hon. Gentleman has made an important point. However, the first responsibility for building the bail-out fund must lie with the eurozone members. As we said in the House on Monday, the problem at the G20 is that the G20, the International Monetary Fund and countries such as Britain cannot be asked to do things that the eurozone members are not themselves prepared to do. We do stand ready to boost the IMF, we do want to help countries in distress, and we do not want to see our trading partners collapse. We understand that, even though we do not support membership of the euro, if countries fall out of the euro it could be very painful for our economy. However, it is for the eurozone countries to sort out the problems. It is their currency.

Secondary information